This is the official thread for the Flux FA-10
This thread is for discussion and reviews.
- XLR & RCA input, 1/4 inch and xlr out
- 16w @ 32 ohms, 1w @ 600 ohm
- Gain and input selectors
Flux Labs Link[Reviews]
Z Reviews…
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Has anybody here even heard one? Is It just for people with VERY hard to drive headphones?
Reviews are very positive on the head fi thread. There is a pro and regular version with slightly different tuning. Their TOTL amp (Volot) will be released in October.
Reviews with positive with the HE6, 1266, Susvara, amongst other HPs.
Yes I have been reading reviews there and elsewhere on the web.
Just wondering if it is a great amp or, just a great amp if you need to drive certain headphones.
Definitely a great value for all that power.
Lol seems like it is, will change, I just saw he was reviewing the FA-10 (not denoted pro)
Looks like he reviewed the Pro as it has the red PCB??
Yes seems to be, when I made this thread I was only told he was reviewing the fa-10, I wasn’t able to see any images so I had no idea
The weird thing that kept popping up was that Zeos kept saying it wasn’t class A even though its denoted class A? and how if they’re both class A would the FA12 be better than the FA10? wouldn’t it be the same amp with more power? So many questions
From what I know the FA-12 is fully balanced and has a fair bit less power compared to the FA-10, but haven’t heard it so can’t comment on sonic differences
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Yeah this was confusing. He was also saying the FA-10 was balanced when it wasn’t
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Well Flux Labs replied to my comment on his video and said “This is an ordinary FA-10, not a Pro. Red PCB are now installed in all amplifiers.” Even though the components don’t even match their pictures on their website. I guess their FA-10 picture is old.
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General feedback is that the FA-12 is better for easier to drive headphones and that the FA-10 / pro are better for those harder to drive headphones (HE6, Susvara, 1266, etc…).
I dont thinks the FA-10 / pro are significantly different from hardware perspective just tuned slightly different to provide different emphasis in frequency response.
Many reviewers on headfi are saying this is an end game amp (although that is subjective) but it’s unclear what to truly expect from the Volot which is actually fully balanced.
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Good to know
That sounds like what I’ve heard
Is it out yet?
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Not yet. And they are trying to keep it around $2.5k
Seems like a reasonable price point (also that way they might not be up to as tough competition lol)
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Got to hear one of these things finally lol, just the regular fa-10, not the pro. Honestly pretty solid, had a pretty enjoyable tuning, was a bit warmer sweeter thicker but didn’t lean too far into it, it had pretty nice dynamics and also impressive impact, detail was solid, it was a wider sounding amp, not a ton of depth but still pretty nice.
Honestly it’s a good middle ground for preformance to cost ish, where it’s an upgrade over the stuff in the 500 range, but not quite competing with the 1.5k ish mark stuff, but solid overall. I enjoyed most planar off of it, and it did pretty well with high ohm Beyers for fun (although with the Beyer’s I could use more refinement for my taste imo). Was pretty nice though, if you have a harder to drive headphone this thing powers most with ease, although I might say that with more easy to drive but amp picky headphones it might be a tad too sloppy for my tastes (like a clear or utopia for example)
Dac wise I only got to try a few dacs (holo may kte, mytek manhatten, chord hugo tt 2 + mscaler, and also an ares ii and bf2), and it really paired well with most of them, although I preferred the may and actually the manhatten the most, did a pretty decent job at letting a fair amount of the dac shine through. The bf2 felt a bit too soft for my tastes with this amp, the hugo kinda tilted it more neutral which was still good sounding but honestly the tuning of the amp is one of the more valuable aspects it has so I would prefer to maintain or enhance that. The mytek ended up keeping the house sound of the flux while tightening it up a bit and giving an increase in definition. The may gave it a more spacious stage and a bit more depth which was nice, but ended up actually taking a tad of meat off the bone sound wise in comparison, although still really nice. The ares ii was a good match, did it justice but that being said I did find it to get a bit too colored in nos mode for my tastes with this amp so I actually kept it on os
The main headphones I ended up trying were the 1266, susvara, he6, utopia, aeon 2c, t1.2, kennerton horn (can’t spell it), lcd 24 and 3pf, and adx5k.
The aeon 2c was really good here, gave some real improvement to control and impact, sweetened up the midrange a bit, had more body in the bass, and some extra width, was a real solid pairing for the money imo. The lcd 24 was nice here too, actually responded pretty well, you can get more out of it with a nicer amp but it didn’t feel like it was being limited that much, overall just emphasized what it already had to offer. The 3pf I actually liked more on this amp, really just liquid sounding with great naturalness and impact, real nice, although perhaps it could use a bit more treble energy since it was a tad soft there. The kennertons had a fair bit of noise and it kinda made them too boomy and sloppy, was the best, kinda same with the utopia, although with the utopia it really was also lacking from a technical perspective, it’s a very picky headphone lol. The 5k went better than I thought, gave it some needed body, improved smoothness in the treble, and gave it a bit more width, also more impact was nice, but this one I kinda felt was a bit lacking in terms of precision again. The 1.2 kinda did better imo, it helped calm the beyer treble and gave it more body, while not sacrificing detail and control as much.
Now for the big ones that are the real power hogs lol. While it did drive the he6 better than most headphones amps I can think of at this price, I still think a power amp here is the way to go, imo grabbing a used power amp in the 700 range would drive the he6 better than the fa-10 can offer imo. But if you have to have a headphone amp, this is a decent pick but I still would push people towards a speaker amp. Regarding both the susvara and 1266, these did sound good and enjoyable on the flux, but I would highly recommend you go much higher amp wise to actually get what these headphones can offer. While the flux did have good control over them, they felt super watered down and not worthwhile on this amp compared to higher end offerings imo. This amp could be a reasonable budget holdover for them, but I would highly just suggest saving up and going higher, otherwise if you never plan to go higher I don’t know if the 1266 or susvara is worthwhile, you might be better suited with a diana v2 or he1000se if you plan to stick with the fa10
Edit: I typically don’t say this much lol, moreso just a stream of thoughts, tldr I like it’s tuning and it’s competent for the price, good for warmer fun, best paired with most non flagship planar, but for really amp picky higher end headphones I think it shows the weaknesses of this amp too much and they just want more to get where they should be, overall good though if you keep pairings within reason.
Can’t really go into a ton of detail outside of basic thoughts since I only got about a day with it for the most part, but perhaps I can get more time with it later on lol, it was interesting
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Finally indeed. Did you feel it was accurate in its space with things like ares2? Also they say the volume knob is weird like there is a lot of space inbetween volumes and not gradual, is this something you noticed?
Price is so good paired with a similarly priced ares2 if its a higher tier than the 500 stuff before you enter the 1ks.
While I don’t think it was most accurate I have heard in the range (mainly depth was not as impressive as width), I don’t think it was lacking spatially either. The Ares II would honestly be a pretty solid match with it imo, and tbh I really can’t decide if I preferred nos or os mode with this amp, both were pretty solid. I would be curious to try it with more appropriately priced dacs in the future lol, but I didn’t get to take this home or anything. Unless spatial recreation is your utmost priority I don’t think many would find it lacking
The stepping on the volume wasn’t the best, but personally it didn’t drive me nuts or anything considering cost. It was nice that you get a stepped volume control at this price though
Yeah I would say this is above stuff like the liquid platinum or rebelamp, but not like v280/gsx mini/taurus mkii/etc level. It did remind me of like a burson conductor or pro ican somewhat, although it’s a bit more laid back than the pro ican in ss mode. While I wouldn’t say it’s at the same performance level, I think it might get closer to the ican than you would think (but imo for the money the ican didn’t preform the way it should anyways, but you got a ton of features which justified the cost). TBH if I didn’t need the features I might take the fa-10 with a higher tier dac over the pro ican with a lower tier dac (but the dac would be the determining factor here, with the same dac for both I think the pro ican would pull ahead)
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